1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to display systems for off-shelf displaying of products in retail stores. More particularly, the invention relates to display systems which may utilize the shipping box in which retail products are transported to retailers as part of the display system. Specifically, the invention relates to a display system utilizing the lower half of a shipping box to support having elongated retail products contained therein such as wrapping paper, and a display board which hangs from an upper rim of the shipping box to display complementary retail products such as adhesive tape.
2. Background Information
The typical retail store groups related products on shelves or on hanger rods which mount to a wall or other upright structure and which extend inwardly toward the isles of the store. The shelves typically hold boxed products and other such items which are readily supported on the flat upper surface of the shelves. The depth of most shelves is limited such that elongate products do not conveniently fit and must be positioned parallel to the isle taking up an unacceptably wide shelf area in most stores. Hanger rods are typically used to display products such as those packaged in lightweight cardboard or flexible plastic packages which may be hung from the hanger rod by a hole through an upper end of the packaging. Such packaged products which are too small to place on the shelves or which are seasonal in nature are frequently hung from elongate clip strips made of a light weight flexible plastic strip about one inch wide and from about twenty to forty inches in length. These clip strips are typically die-cut to produce a plurality of upwardly extending single flaps disposed lengthwise along the clip strip. Each single flap is flanked by a pair of downwardly extending flaps to form a flap group to retain the products. The products are mounted to the clip strip by positioning the upper end of the cardboard backing sheet under the pair of flaps and inserting the single flap through the hanging hole of the backing sheet to support the product. The flap group retains the backing sheet on the clip sheet while permitting a backing sheet with packaged product to be easily removed from the clip strip by pulling the product away from the clip strip to deflect the flaps. The top of the clip strips typically include a hole to wire them to shelf supports and product displays in locations around the store where consumers might be enticed to buy the products displayed on the clip strips. The clip strips allow complementary products such as ball point pens to be displayed adjacent primary products such as packs of writing tablets on shelves without taking up valuable shelf space.
There are a number of drawbacks to the use of clip strips. Firstly, attachment of products to the clip strips is labor-intensive, requiring each individual product to be manually mounted to the flaps of the clip strips at the retail store. If the products come pre-mounted to the clip strips from the manufacturer of the product, the products often disengaged from the flaps of the clip strips during transport to the retailer. The retailer must then manually reattach the products to the clip strips which at least partially defeats the purpose of having the products sent pre-attached to the clip strips. Secondly, only a limited number of the products may be displayed on any one clip strip depending on the number of flap groups present, typically being between about ten and thirty flap groups. Thirdly, when consumers remove the products from the clip strips it is easy to inadvertently disengage the other products from the clip strip. Fourthly, once the flap group has been used to retain and dispense the product, the flaps tend to become weakened and deformed due to the bending involved in engaging and disengaging the product. Therefore, if the product is reattached to the clip strip such as when the consumer decides not to purchase the product, or when new products are attached to the clip strip to replace sold products, the products may inadvertently fall off the clip strip onto the floor. Finally, products displayed on the clip strips typically look unsightly, hanging at various angles from the clip groups rather than neatly aligned. As a result, many retailers are not using clip strips and many chain retailers are banning the use of clip strips in their stores.
Seasonal products such as wrapping paper and adhesive tape typically are shipped to retailers in corrugated cardboard boxes. The wrapping paper is often displayed in a vertical position within the original shipping box with the top half of the box cut off to expose the wrapping paper. The adhesive tape is a product which is complementary to the primary product of wrapping paper since the wrapping paper is typically secured around a package using adhesive tape. The adhesive tape typically comes with a single roll of adhesive tape affixed to a backing sheet having an upper hole for hanging, or in multi-roll adhesive tape packages comprising a cardboard box which partially or completely encloses two or more rolls of adhesive tape. It is desirable to stock the adhesive tape close to the wrapping paper on shelves, either being hung from hanger rods or attached to clip strips adjacent the wrapping paper. However, the small size of carded single rolls of adhesive tape and the multi-roll adhesive tape packages makes them difficult to stock and maintain neatly on shelves. The adhesive tape on shelves falls over, does not stay in straight rows, and may fall onto the floor. Likewise, adhesive tape hung from hangers or clip strips looks untidy, may fall onto the floor, and may not be replaced properly by consumers onto the hanger rod or clip strip if the consumer decides not to make the purchase. It would be desirable to have a single display system for both the wrapping paper and the adhesive tape, and for similar primary products and complementary second products.